Elvira Notari

Elvira Notari (born Elvira Coda; 10 February 1875 – 17 December 1946) was an Italian film director, one of the country's early and more prolific female filmmakers. She is credited with making over 60 feature films and about 100 shorts and documentaries, quite often writing the subjects and screenplays, inspired by Naples. The Elvira Notari Prize is named after her.

She was of modest social origins. She married Nicola Notari. Together they founded Dora Film, and she became the first Italian woman to create a family film production company. She directed the films, while he worked as a cameraman. Their son, Eduardo or "Gennariello", based on a character he played, worked as an actor in many of the films. Eduardo nicknamed his mother "The General", based on her strong will and determination displayed in her film company. In an example, tears on screen for her films had to be real, brought up from a "painful or emotionally sensitive detail of a player's private life", rather than the use of glycerin for artificial tears. Elvira was uncommonly allowed to attend school and pursue an education at the School of Science in literature while dancing as a hobby. In school, she developed her skills in the use of language and this was shown in her writing. In 1902, when she finished school she and her family moved to Naples. She worked as a "milliner" which she continued to do even after she became a filmmaker. Where after some time she found and in August 1902, married Nicola Notari. They had three children, Eduardo, Dora and Maria.

Career Elvira along with her husband established their production company. After a few name changes they settled on Dora Films, which was named after her daughter, who never worked in the business. Most of the work done by Dora films was lost, with only a few records remaining. Dora Films was a true production company, which included editing, labs and other necessities to create films. The live synchronization of music and songs with the images on screen, often hand-drawn or machine colored, are quite possibly the first form of multimedia entertainment ever. Elvira is credited with contributing to the acting school as well as being a scriptwriter. It is understood that she might have also worked on the editing of the films they produced.

Elvira Notari relied on women's literature when it came to the development of her ideas. In her "female melodramas" she focuses on the female perspective. Elvira had a tendency of portraying the "dark woman", the femme fatale, a woman who deviated from the norm. There was a focus on the female body as well as female fantasy, which is an aspect of Elvira Natori's work. In her works 'Nfama! and A Piedigrotta the female leads are described as the "unruly female figure" the films go on to portray the struggle of these women. One of the other themes in her films, that present these types of women, is desire. Men desiring women, women desiring some sort of feeling or emotion.

Censorship in Italy had come down on Dora films. The films shined a light on aspects of Italian life that many found unsuitable to be portrayed. The films often dealt with “crude language and sexual undertones,” which tested the idea of censorship. Censorship often asked for scenes to be edited or removed. Furthermore, Notari’s decline came through Fascist intervention in her own home and she inevitable shifted to Hollywood-style film, including soundtrack over her original live singers signature, with her film Napoli terra d’amore (1928) being a disaster with her public. Furthermore, it may also be due to the fact that it was must for Italian filmmakers to move to Rome due to the governments choices and Elvira had no desire to. Later on her husband became a film distributor.

Filmography